Collective Effect
by enigma1097
Summary: What if instead of just observing us the Protheans had a backup plan in case the Asari failed? When a side effect manifests in a strange phenomenon called the Connection, a pseudo psionic link similar to their abilities to share experiences, humanity unifies and decides to present a determined front. How will the galaxy react to the Human Collective?
1. Prologue

Establishing connection to intersystem network…

Connection established.

Accessing recent history of human expansion into space…

Timeline:

Late 2030s to 2040s- The upswing in divisive acts that mark the early half of the 21st century experiences a rapid decline with formerly hostile elements suddenly backing down either of their own volition or due to the decisions of former comrades. Sociologists worldwide fail to find a cause.

Early 2050s- As the few remaining brush wars die out humanity is poised to enter a new golden age with significant strides to bring countries once considered either too unprofitable or too volatile up to modern standards in an attempt to, in the words of the president of recently the recently reformed Russian Federation, "Fix the horrendous oversights of our predecessors that has seen one portion of humanity advance significantly and then sneer at those living in less fortunate regions." These circumstances result in a population boom that has world leaders scramble to accelerate plans to colonize the solar system in order to stall overpopulation.

October 4, 2057- On the centennial celebration of the launch of Sputnik 1 Jazmyne Shepard became the first human on Mars though, due to losing her balance and falling, her planned words were not spoken instead the first words from Mars were, "I'm alright. Oh, well I screwed that up. Oh well, here's to you sputnik, we've come a long way in a hundred years, beep beep beep." The crew then proceeded to place the two proposed flags for earth, one featuring the famous earthrise image and the other the International Flag of the Planet Earth, due to the debate over what should represent humanities combined efforts for spaceflight. The team's mission was to collect geological and ice samples from around the southern polar ice cap for analysis to determine a colony location.

April 12, 2061- The first colonists arrive at the Armstrong Lunar Habitat.

2060s- Missions to Mars continue as plans are drawn up to begin terraforming by jump-starting the core. Site of permanent research base decided on.

July 20, 2069- Gagarin Research Station is established on the southern Martian icecap with the goal of performing experiments on Mars, having a ground team capable of overseeing planned terraforming projects, and to begin preparation for a more sizable human population. After some initial sensor anomalies the station reported all green. The station is located in the large impact crater in the northern section of Promethei Planun due to accessibility of ice and predicted ease of access to the surface beneath.

2070s- Armstrong Colony, as the habitat became known, and Gagarin Station experience rapid growth as a surprising number of people emigrate earth, quickly bringing the total populations of the both colonies over a million each. When asked many state that there was too much noise on Earth or they felt that the colonists were lonely. Mars terraforming is on schedule and the core is expected to produce an acceptable magnetic field by 2100.

February 18, 2079- A clerical error results in sensors being shipped to Mars without having the now standard correction for those headed to the red planet. The error is not discovered until they are detected readings as when the colony was founded. An archaeological team is dispatched once they are determined to be emanating from beneath what was believed to be frozen volcanic ash.

July 5, 2080- The signal source is discovered, a buried cache of alien technology. The species is given the name Prothean due to a typo when entering Promethean in the report. The public is undecided on whether the name is a portent of things to come. Research begins into the technology and the materials found. A significant military buildup begins to protect humanity from whatever is found.

July 6, 2080 to October 7, 2081- Using the applications of the discovered material Massa Mutatio, unofficially known as Element Zero, shortened to Eezo, after a joke (a significant number of students used its discovery to attempt to call physics into question and therefor have tests canceled or incorrect questions counted correct. The teachers were not amused and many added a square before helium with the atomic symbol Ez and said that anyone trying to use that excuse would get it's atomic number according to the table.), humanity began mapping out the solar system in detail before culminating in discovering that the archives were accurate and there was a large structure under Charon. The activation codes proved correct, however in the process the moon was obliterated. Meanwhile plans for a defensive space force were drawn up, during the course of this the designs of the ill-fated Orion Orbital Battleship were revealed to have survived.

October 12, 2081- After days of sending probes through and failing to receive a response it is determined that the only way to progress was to send a manned mission. A call for qualified volunteers was issued and many jumped at the call including Jazmyne Shepard and her son Ryan Shepard who records say both practically beat the officials into putting them on the craft. This resulted in the memorable incident of one crew member trying to do a calculation of the ship's mass when the Shepards looked at each other and snorted before activating the experimental Massa Mutatio core to reduce the mass to zero. This resulted in the _U.N.S. Enterprise_ becoming the first manned spacecraft to traverse a mass relay.

2082 to 2102- The following two decades are a golden era of exploration and expansion where the human species colonized multiple planets and the population began to show signs of leveling off. During this time the Connection is discovered and the planetary governments reform under the new Human Collective. However, at no point is any sentient life discovered despite the indication it exists. Meanwhile Mars's core is successfully jump-started and work begins on creating a breathable atmosphere. Some objections were raised to the project, voicing the opinion that it would be easier to find habitable worlds using the relays, but they were silenced once it was pointed out that not only was whatever caused the Protheans to leave possibly still out there, but if the work stopped then all the money and man-hours poured into it would be wasted just before it could show results. It was decided that atmospheric mass could be sourced from Venus.

End timeline.

Is there anything needed for addition Captain Shepard? (y/n)

 _Y_

Please enter access code.

 _Mom fell on the Eezo controls._

Code input… accepted.

Please input the addition.

 _July 16, 2102- First contact occurs_

* * *

A/N: Ok, first ever legitimate piece of fanfiction... here goes nothing.

the basic idea behind this was given to me by a friend ("How would humanity develop if population is limited to an arbitrary number due to a mental network that reaches capacity after a relatively small point" the number given was twelve billion) in reference to scifi settings. during the discussion the Mass Effect universe was specifically mentioned and I couldn't get the idea to leave me alone so here

this humanity is different, more scientifically focused than in baseline (reasons should be explained later but part of it is paranoia of being wiped out), more unified, somewhat more empathetic (feeling a mental reverberation of pain caused to another human tends to encourage understanding and discourse), but also more vindictive (that mental backlash also causes pain caused to others to equal echo pain caused to self)

not sure where this is going exactly, only thing that's clear is that this humanity tends to practice the carrot and stick philosophy with other species, and the stick tends to be orbital bombardment of varying degrees of devastation from kiloton to extinction event (it's not like they could afford the numbers to colonize or subjugate it so they like scorched earth). I wish to point out, humanity has not signed any of the Citadel's conventions on WMDs and as this humanity is slightly paranoid they are as likely to listen to them as the batarians are to abolish slavery

following chapters will have either adapted codex entries or their human equivalent. Each will be based on their societies information so the codex shouldn't be taken as perfectly accurate on humans and the intersystem network's files (basically their version of the internet, even has the same acronym: internet, and uses something similar to Wikipedia for their codex analogue)

guess that's it for now, hope you enjoyed it and there's more to come

* * *

edit: brief correction of spelling errors that slipped by


	2. First Contact

Shepard looked over the terminal banks of the bridge and there accompanying crew, "Update away, give me the status of the alien ship."

"First contact package away, both Standard and Prothean. Believe both to have been received, awaiting reply," answered Communication Specialist Udina.

Meanwhile aboard the _Eal'xaub_

"The ships just sent a data packet, looks like a first contact package. We've received and isolated the data. Orders captain?" Semu'Summa looked up from the terminal.

Cain'Zorah nodded, "Good, maintain a proof of life data signal and keep the fleet updated. Put their message on screen." While the first language was unknown the second looked familiar, "I want a text analysis done on that message, run it against all known languages."

"No matches for the first language, second is showing one hundred percent match to Prothean," was the reply.

Back on the _H.C.S. Phoenix_

Shepard drummed his fingers on the command chair, "What's command saying?"

Udina shrugged off the captain's impatience and checked his terminal, "Shanxi's defense force is mobilizing to come to our aid if they turn hostile, and a ship carrying some linguists to help with the language barrier is waiting on the green light to arrive. Other than that you have command." He frowned at the screen, "They're responding with the Prothean, but it feels more like they had the computer translate it. They are asking how we wish to proceed."

Shepard frowned, "See if they'd be willing to work on a translation from Standard to their language since they don't seem to have anyone that can understand Prothean. Also offer to exchange some cultural information, specifically standard etiquette so as not to offend each other if we have visual or physical talks. And warn them about the linguist ship."

Semu'Summa frowned at the message, "Sir, they're offering to collaborate on a translation program for our languages, an exchange of cultural data to prevent accidental insults, and are asking if we would allow another one of their ships carrying linguists to join them. This is odd though, in the offer for collaboration they specifically reference a desire for the meaning not to be lost in translation from Prothean to Quarian, well they didn't name it by name but that the gist of it."

Cain'Zorah frowned, "Is it possible that they've gotten a virus into our systems?"

"They couldn't have. The system receiving the messages is physically isolated from the rest of the ship, and even if it wasn't the likelihood that their hardware configurations were similar enough to ours to make one viable is small enough to be zero. In fact if they weren't using a variation on a Prothean data structure and we didn't have that special equipment installed we'd still be attempting to establish communication," replied a technician.

"Accept the offer and allow the linguist ship, but make sure not to pass on information that would reveal the existence of the migrant fleet. They're amicable now but that might change if they knew we lacked a home," with that Cain'Zorah leaned forward to look closer at the odd conical ship that somehow gave off the impression of being boxy and murmured, "Now what is your race's story?"

The next two Earth weeks consisted of the two groups working on a Quarian to Standard translation. Work proceeded slowly even with a small team of Quarian experts dispatched, the Admiralty Board refused to risk the Council discovering their find and taking over so were unable to send anything larger than a small corvette class ship, to aid in the work and having a translation to Prothean from each language. Still, both groups appreciate that they did not have to start from scratch and estimated that only having to match up translations reduced the time for a working translation software down from the possible months. This also had the side effect of reducing tensions for the eventual meeting between the two captains.

Shepard took a steadying breath and looked at Udina, "You ready?"

Udina nodded, "Yes, it'll be interesting to see what they look like, a shame that we couldn't get our video files to line up. Still the implications of restriction to suits, troubling."

Shepard grimaced, "True, you've seen what the analysts think are the cause of it. Anyway we're about to be able to ask them."

Udina snorted, "Yes, because that would go swimmingly I can see it now, 'hello, why do you insist on staying in those suits like a bunch of freaks?'." He smiled inwardly when he felt Shepard relax somewhat, on a whole they tended to get tense about making a mistake during an important event, especially after Mars and the first jump. Of course that this tended to make the likelihood of another mistake higher didn't help.

"I'll just be happy if we avoid a shooting war. Honestly I'm surprised they agreed for a four person max and to meet on the transport ship," Shepard said as they felt the jolt of the shuttle landing in the hanger.

Udina grinned, "We've only had a skeleton crew on since we met them and it's easier to keep two people out of the way instead of however many they crew their ships with. Besides after our linguists working together things'll have to go fubar for shots to be fired." _Good, he's finally relaxing._

Shepard smirked at him, "Can you broadcast any louder you asshole?"

Udina's reply was cut off by Margaret's voice in their earpieces, "Quarian shuttle has landed. Doors opening in three, two, one, show time."

With that the doors of both shuttles opened to allow the guards to step out, scan the area, and signal for their wards that it was safe to step out.

For Shepard and Udina it was what they expected given the written descriptions that had been exchanged earlier. They were a humanoid race surprisingly similar in size and shape to humans save for their leg shape, and the number of digits on their hands and feet. Anything other than these differences was hidden by their environmental suits, a fact that had some analysts worried about the human's ability to understand their emotional tells.

For Cain'Zorah and Yaanna'Xen, the head of the Quarians dispatched from the Migrant Fleet, it was a different matter. From the information exchanged beforehand they were expecting a bipedal mammalian species that had a chance of resembling Asari, although anything more than a passing resemblance was deemed unlikely especially given changes in skin tone and the hairs that covered their body and clustered around their head. While they did have an uncanny resemblance what was more shocking was the blueish feathers growing from one of their scalps and the small clusters of scales visible on the other one.

"Yaanna'Xen, any ideas on the difference from what we expected?" Cain'Zorah asked over the Quarian's private communications.

She thought for a moment, "It's possible that when we were double checking the translation someone was confused and believed their words for 'baseline' and 'average' had grown similar enough to be interchangeable." She quickly called up the relevant data with internal commands, "Ah, it seems that would be the case, we might have to change that later. It's an understandable mistake, the words would be close enough for their meanings to align…" she trailed off when she noticed Cain'Zorah motioning that she wasn't using the channel.

Meanwhile the humans were chuckling before Shepard spoke, "It's okay, we figured that it might surprise you but since we'd already started communicating command thought that switching people would be detrimental. As to the differences, we were both caught in the affected area when a group of extremists released an advanced bio-weapon that destabilized people's DNA in an attempt to, ironically, turn public opinion away from the related sciences. Their plan failed and we were fortunate enough for aid to arrive before any permanent harm could be done, however the only thing that worked was an experimental method and it had some side effects due to the circumstances."

At this point Udina broke in, "What he's trying to say is that it was not our intention to deceive, but we were worried that you might react extremely adversely if we had informed you of our society's acceptance of genetic modifications before we met face to face since at that time our communications were restricted to the more impersonal text format."

Cain'Zorah nodded his head, "An understandable precaution. Even if level heads prevail amongst the leadership all it takes is one overly excited person to start an incident."

Shepard had a tight smile, "I know exactly what you mean. If you have data on your people, like a public encyclopedia, we could exchange that instead of boring each other and wasting time by taking turns to explain everything and then resume the meeting after going over it.

Cain'Zorah grimaced inside his suit, "We do have something that might work but those who produce it have not had a good view of my species for some time so it portrays us in a manner that gives them the moral high ground. I'd provide you with a more unbiased on but my species tends to keep mostly to itself and never expected a first contact. I'll highlight the data relevant to us"

"That is understandable we'll keep that in consideration. If it is acceptable to you, could we both remain present instead of returning to our ships and having to repeat the synchronized departure?" asked Udina.

"Probably so we don't start shooting if we discover something that we don't like," was Yaanna'Xen's private remark to this.

Cain'Zorah took her words into consideration, "That would be acceptable."

The two captains relayed the new information to their ships before beginning to read over the transferred information, a task that took enough time for them to put off continuing the meeting until after they had some sleep. This resulted in both groups being surprised by the Quarians use of nutrient paste and the human's rather opulent meal. Meanwhile the two crewmembers that remained on the ship discovered that they had left the cards in the occupied hanger, to their dismay and everyone else's enjoyment.

When they resumed the atmosphere was tense, but hopeful.

Shepard glanced at Udina who began to talk, "I'm sure the information has created questions for both of us. Do you have any that stand out in particular?"

Cain'Zorah grimaced at what he was about to ask, "The files said that you used AI despite having over a century of media in which they rose up against you. Why would you endanger yourselves like that?"

Shepard nodded, "That's a good question, and I suppose I should be thanking you for asking instead of leaving given your history with the Geth. You read the portion on the Connection I assume? Good, well like it says, it allows for the transmission of emotions and in some cases thoughts between people familiar with each other, such as close friends or family. Its emergence more or less led to the unification of our species. It has two side effects that we know of. One, groups working on something become more efficient. This is most notable when doing scientific research since it seems that mental ability is somehow pooled together, somewhat similar to the process behind your Geth, though not as extreme. The second side effect is that our population growth is declining despite resources no longer being an issue and is expected to level out at approximately twelve billion given current rates. We would simply be unable to control more than about four well developed worlds at once without spreading ourselves thin. To combat the threat, basic morality is ingrained while the AI develops and robotic military units are only controlled by an AI starting at squad level with each squad being treated as a unit. The individual units rely on the overseers and each other for targeting data and, enhanced, processing, power… shit! Udina contact command and warn them to code in the morality protocols into the dumb AIs.

Udina just continued typing, "Already on it. Can't believe we overlooked that. Margaret, can you give us estimates on how close we were to an accidental singularity?"

"Given current processing power it would most likely emerge between one to ten thousand more automatons being brought online," came the reply from their earpieces.

Shepard frowned at this, "Sorry, about that. I have to thank you, you just likely helped us avoid our own Geth. As I was saying, we just lack the numbers to not use AIs and have gone to significant lengths to avoid even a zeroth law rebellion."

Cain'Zorah nodded, "I may not like it, but I see the logic. Can I ask who Margaret is?"

"AI been with me most of my career ever since she decided I needed a minder after our first use of a relay." Shepard thought and frowned, "The information you provided mentioned a government called the Citadel Council, actually it seemed to be from their point of view, which portrays itself as the galactic peacekeepers. Why didn't they help you?"

Cain'Zorah snorted, "They immediately responded by closing our embassy and preparing for the Geth to attack. When nothing happened and everyone calmed down, they decided that as punishment we would not be given a world and effectively forced to wander until we could colonize one on our own. Problematic because every garden world is either claimed as their territory or in extremely dangerous areas, and we lack the ability to terraform a world. Overall they tend to be very helpful and amicable, as long as it either helps or doesn't interfere with their species."

Udina leaned over to Shepard and whispered, "Command's been informed that Nod's been confirmed and have given permission for the Enoch option at your discretion."

Shepard nodded his understanding before refocusing on the Quarians, "I understand what you mean, there are several similar instances in our own history where one group was forced to become nomadic, they don't perfectly line up but I believe that it's safe to say this won't end happily for everyone without some kind of intervention." He paused to think here, "That brings me to the next topic. I forwarded the data you gave me to my commanders and they think that we could come to a mutually beneficial agreement. It would be an alliance of mutual protection and pooled resources. You have knowledge of the wider galaxy that would be useful to us. Better, it's not the sugarcoated accepted face but the socially disliked face. You also apparently have some of the best low gravity miners, and probably some of the best experience in dealing with limited resources. We can provide a sizable industrial base, freedom from the threat of extinction should one of your live ships be destroyed, and enough genetic knowledge to repair your immune systems. We are also willing to grant you a planet we are in the process of terraforming, its atmosphere is almost viable though no life has been introduced yet, though you'd have to provide the genetic samples to seed the world since we lack any dextro-amino acid based planets."

Cain'Zorah frowned, "How do we know you wouldn't backstab us?"

Shepard shrugged, "We'd lose more than we'd gain. It would take an unreasonable amount of energy to forcibly control your species and would be less efficient than just continuing to use automated systems. Plus all you'd have to do was get one ship out to warn the Council about a new aggressive species that's intent on enslaving everyone to get them to react in a manner that's bad for us. As for the reasons why, there's the benefits I mentioned, plus humans tend not to do well when someone attempts to unilaterally declare themselves over us. It tends to result in wars, so we'll likely have strained relations with the Council and it never hurts to have another person in your corner. Also if your situation ever came out to the public they discovered we didn't even offer help, we most likely would lose a metaphorical head."

Cain'Zorah thought for a moment, "I'll pass your offer to the admiralty board. How should we contact you with our answer?"

"We'll likely put sensor buoys around the relay you arrived in. Just broadcast that your Quarian and a ship should arrive shortly," answered Udina.

With that both groups returned to their shuttles and began flying back to their ships.

"Well that went well, nobody started shooting," Shepard said when the shuttle touched down.

Udina shook his head and stepped out, "Eh, I'm pretty sure that when actual diplomats see the recording they'll be reduced to tears."

Meanwhile the two remaining crewmembers on the ship were busy searching the hanger for the card deck before everyone else arrived.

* * *

Intersystem Network Database:

Terrorist Attacks of 2098

In the wake of the debates over the ethics of the Collective's mass pushes for the elimination of genetic defects from the gene pool through use of genetic engineering to heal the damaged areas, a group of malcontents from the _Pura Homo_ group, the group synonymous with anti-genetics hardliners, released an engineered bio-weapon in Times Square to drive the public away from the field in fear of the weapons that could be created from it. This was the first test of the recent mantra of "The first to resort to violence is the one that is wrong" that had been held up as a sign of humanities development and understanding. The mantra was followed in an unexpected fashion, as responding police discovered when they had to save the surviving terrorists from the crowd members that were outside of the affected area. Only five of the twelve survived the crowd, two of those later died from complications, and one of the dead had to be identified using DNA analysis. In the end the three surviving members were sentenced to be hanged until dead on the grounds that, "These deliberate act of terrorism that left people in such pain that it was felt for a ten mile radius they deserve nothing less, but so much more however as we cannot have you hang, drawn, and quartered without causing more pain than satisfaction, and the fact you'd never live until a gentler execution, this will have to do." The sentence was carried out a month later as the last of the affected left the hospital and between it, and the bloodthirsty crowd, all hopes of this this new face of humanity being more forgiving were dashed. Instead it became accepted that until certain lines were crossed it would be merciful, but once those lines were crossed the perpetrators would be better off dead.

Reactions to First Contact:

In the aftermath of First Contact with the Quarians waves of emotions swept through humanity. One was happiness and excitement that we were not alone, quickly followed by fear that it wasn't peaceful and our days were numbered, before finally settling into optimistic relief that we might have continued peace. This wave was quickly followed by curiosity where any information available about the aliens was devoured and the data they provided was released. This resulted in two events. One, an outpouring of sympathy for the Quarian's plight and near universal approval of the idea to both allow them to colonize Mars and to switch the planned ecosystem to one based on dextro-amino acids. The other was near universal damnation of the Council for their uncaring attitude which resulted in the Collective government having to step in and halt the creation of no less than six private fleets intending to raze Council space due to the unknown difference in military power.

Human Coalition Government:

The Coalition government is an unique mix of Republicanism and an almost literal court of public opinion. As one observer put it, "It's like the old Senate and People of Rome, only in this case the people are about as stable as the crowds of the French Revolution and the Senate is trying to keep everyone moving forward while avoiding the guillotine." This was indicated as early as the trials following the Terrorist Attacks of 2098 where public opinion resulted in the unilateral revision of laws to allow the accused to be hanged and most recently where only through the risk of possible species wide extinction was the government able to reign in the groups wishing to destroy the Council and burn the Citadel.

* * *

A/N: time to explain some things and my logic cause sometimes it's not always obvious. also if anyone knows how to do superscript I'd appreciate it so i could properly line the notes up

/Standard is the official human wide language and consists of an amalgamation of past and present languages, and pretty much i think that for the archives to of been any use Prothean must have been decoded since it's not like they used pictographs to point where the relay was

/Shanxi is a full blown colony with a notable first generation in their teens instead of, what can assumed to be, the relatively young colony from canon (twenty years of slow but relentless expansion where everything is pathologically defended vs. the only nine years of rapid expansion from canon [assuming expansion starts with discovery of the mass effect]). due to this it has a much better defense force than in canon though not as much as a core colony (its more or less in what would have been the human outer territories. still settled with a sizable population, but out of the way with most income being as a transport hub from outlying mining and research areas

/My opinion is that due to the difference in Prothean communication tools (i.e. the beacons) they used a different type of transfer medium than the current cycle. Humans built their sensors capable of detecting it (partly an unnoticed natural response to the emerging connection and partially because they were scanning for literally everything). Normally only attuned sensors would detect the emissions (the archive could be detected because they were practically on top of it) which the Quarians have because they were hoping to get lucky and find something useful for the fleet, such as a Prothean device (either to be studied or sold for money for ships and supplies)

also figure that it'd be a good idea to point out that my information on the ME universe comes from the games and the wiki (which has a surprising tendency to reveal a coincidental alignment of data between this and canon such as Gagarin Research Station and Gagarin Station/jump zero's names) didn't even know about the other stuff until after starting on this project and as such it will not be taken into account

As to the density of family names from canon despite it being half a century earlier: I'm a believer that family careers/history have a significant impact on what someone chooses. in this case the Shepard line would have led to a spacer backstory. Humanity no longer really has ambassadors to set an example (in canon it would've been possible his parents were ambassadors between separate countries before the First Contact War) for the eventual Donnel Udina and I could find literally no information on his family so I put one as a comm operator. Cain'Zorah (had a hell of a time finding a name that fit that would even sound halfway decent with Zorah) would be Tali's grandfather and like the rest of his family has a love for research and loyalty for the fleet, just not in as an obsessive way as Rael'Zorah. Yaanna'Xen has the same drive for research that her daughter does, just without the lack of morals.

As to the genetic stuff, it's stated in canon that there's significant genetic technology, a humanity that doesn't have the Council's bans on it (not that they listen to it all that much *cough* medigel *cough*), has a significant reason to do the research due to population constraints and is sitting on a literal gold mine of Prothean data, a decent amount of which refers to the work done on humanity which required significant genetic knowledge, leads to a humanity more advanced in that area

As to the relative ease of the meeting there's two reasons: One, They've had two weeks where their people have been working to hash out a direct translation which has lowered tensions as long as nobody did anything stupid (helps that Cain'Zorah is less fanatical than his later family). and Two, for the life of me I can't seem to get a good high tension talking scene down


	3. First Contact again

There was a period of tense negotiations due to the scale of what was being offered, but in the end the admiralty board approved the proposal so the Migrant Fleet subtly moved to human space, well as subtly as the largest fleet in the galaxy could, and the Human-Quarian Alliance was born. The next five years consisted of integration mainly between the humans on Mars and the Quarians, aggressive ramping up of the Mars project as it was no longer a topic of doing it to finish but a matter of survival for a species, and a ramping up of shipbuilding to allow humanity to remain independent from the Citadel Council.

Shepard knew all this yet currently did not care as his eyes scanned the pub before finding his friend at a table in the corner and moving to join him.

When Cain'Zorah saw him he raised his glass, "Hey Shep, I see Udina owes you fifty bytes."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "He's coming? That's news to me, I thought he'd be held up by the stuff at Sol Station."

Cain'Zorah shrugged, "Got the message this morning. Guess he wants to surprise you. Or we could ask him."

Shepard snorted as he waved him over, "Speak of the devil and he shall appear. How you been, Douglas?"

Udina sighed and handed over the money, "How many times have I asked you not to call me that? And same as always, counting down the days until my contract expires and I can get back to doing something interesting."

Shepard smiled, "Well it's your fault for being the one stupid enough to take that job helping negotiations after the fun stuff died down. And why don't you like that name? It's a good name."

Udina shook his head, "Compared to yours every name is a good name, Bartholomew. At least no one can make plane jokes about your name."

Cain'Zorah grinned evilly behind his visor, "I really don't see what either of you are com- **plane** ing about. At least neither of you are named Qwib-Qwib."

The other two groaned good naturedly and Shepard raised a glass, "To our people meeting and none of us being cursed with a name like Qwib-Qwib." At this he and Udina drained their drinks while Cain'Zorah drank his through the straw.

Udina grinned at this, "Shep, I believe our friend here needs to know just what that thing is called."

Cain'Zorah groaned, "One time, I call it that one time and you'll never let me live it down."

Shepard grinned, "It's more how emphatically you defended it being an Emergency Induction Port despite it really being nothing more than a sterile straw."

Cain'Zorah's reply was cut off by the television's loud beeping noise, "We apologize for interrupting your regularly scheduled programming. Earlier today Jump Point Research Station Gamma was attacked by unknown alien forces. All military personal are to report for duty and all Shanxi defensive forces and reservists are to report to their posts for orders. Civilians are to go to the nearest emergency shelters."

The three friends said nothing as they stood up in unison and ran to the spaceport. Once they arrived Cain'Zorah and Shepard looked at each other before nodding and moving to their respective shuttles. Udina did not even pause as he followed Shepard onto the shuttle heading to the _Phoenix_.

When the shuttle docked they both rushed to the bridge and Shepard began typing on his console, "You're reinstated."

Udina nodded, "Understood, ship status?"

"All crew accounted for and all systems operational," was Margaret's reply.

Udina didn't pause, "Patching you into command now sir."

The image of greying Admiral Clines appeared on the monitor, "Status?"

" _HCS Phoenix_ is at one hundred percent readiness," was Shepard's immediate reply.

The admiral nodded, "Good, you're assigned to the first battlegroup." With that he closed the connection to coordinate other ships.

It was Udina who broke the ensuing silence, "So, how bad do you think this is going to be?"

"Hopefully just a quick skirmish so cooler heads can talk, otherwise," Shepard grimaced, "Well, you know how people can get."

Once again the bridge lapsed into silence until command began broadcasting to the fleet, "Okay people, the hostiles got the first strike in but reports indicate they're still trying to take the station, but only had two cruisers and four frigates still operational before destroying the defenses. First Battlegroup is to go to the relay and push the enemy out. Second Battlegroup will lie in wait at the exit relay to ambush them when they retreat. All remaining ships will remain in orbit in case this is just a diversion. Alright people, let's show them not to mess with us."

With that the group leaders dispatched coordinates to the ships and the two groups engaged their FTL.

While they waited to arrive Shepard asked, "What's the composition of our group?"

"A cruiser, six frigates, a light assault carrier, and us as the only survey ship. That comes to a total of nine vessels," was Margaret's reply.

Shepard nodded, it was a good mix of ships. Since there were no battleships or dreadnaughts the frigates would provide screening for the rest of the fleet with erratic patterns and concentrated fire on vulnerable ships while the cruisers would sit back and focus down targets with long range fire. Meanwhile the assault carrier would swarm the enemy with drones before moving to capture disabled vessels. Meanwhile the _Phoenix_ 's job would be to sit back and collect and feed sensor data to the rest of the fleet for coordinating forces while also performing electronic warfare.

The _Phoenix_ , like all standard survey ships, was the size of a cruiser at six hundred meters long, though it only had the firepower of a three hundred meter frigate since about half of the space normally devoted to the guns was used for computers. This was directly related to the power of the sensors in the frontal cone which have been said to be only a few short tweaks from a maser battery. Due to this its jobs were to provide electronic warfare and additional sensor data for allied ships. As there was no command ship present it also gave Shepard the power to assume command should it be necessary.

It was a good ship, and the thoughts of the edge it gave to their forces gave Shepard a predatory smile, "I almost feel bad for them."

Udina had a similar smile when he saw something interesting, "Sir, looks like the _Eal'xaub_ was assigned to our group." At this Shepard's grin only grew wider.

By the time they arrived and assessed the situation the station was a little more than halfway overrun by the boarders, however the communications equipment embedded in the sensors still worked and that section had yet to fall. The order was given for it to begin transmitting targeting data before the fleet moved in closer.

The relief fleet approached at the five o'clock position and thirty degrees below the local solar plane relative to the enemy force. By the time they finished their jump the station was already transmitting targeting data allowing for near instantaneous shots.

The results were devastating, one of the cruisers and two of the frigates had the shots penetrate though the weaker shields surrounding the droplets they were using for heat dispersal and punch into the hull, at which point several were revealed to be experimental slugs holding chlorine triflouride.

While the ships' crews were still trying to come to terms that three of their ships were just rendered combat inoperable and were currently burning in space the assault carrier jumped below their fleet and released a cloud of drones which swarmed the frigate docked with the station.

The current drones were a rather ingenious response to the heavy reliance on kinetic barriers by known species and one of their fatal flaws, slow objects. They were shot at enemies using modified mass accelerators but would perform a burn before impacting with the barrier to pass through and clamp onto the hull. In the current battle they proved their worth as they moved over the hull and disabled the GUARDIAN emitters before targeting any other vulnerable points they could find, such as the engines, and beginning to dig into the hull.

Meanwhile the remaining two ships found out just why the wreckage they found indicated three spinal mounts as they came under a seemingly relentless bombardment. It was not long before the cruiser's shields began to buckle and the commander was forced to order a withdrawal through the relay.

Shepard grinned as he saw the ships vanish from his sensors, "And the prey falls for the trap. Udina, did we remember to sync up the generators before we left?"

Udina nodded, "We did and it's already warmed up to transmit the message on your order."

"Do it and open communications to the _Eal'xaub_ ," Shepard leaned back in his seat as the image of Cain'Zorah came up, "Are you going to complain about our ship designs anymore?"

Cain'Zorah shook his head, "No, they did decent given that it was an ambush which is good, because those were Turian ships."

Shepard frowned and clenched his jaw, "Damn. Udina, get this news to everyone who needs it."

"On it, and message sent, Code Citadel," with that he leaned back and began chewing on his old stylus while they all began to wait for the other shoe to drop.

It did not drop that day, nor the next, nor even the day after that, but a whole two weeks after the initial patrol was driven off. It dropped in the form of a fleet of three dreadnaughts supported by approximately fifty cruisers and seventy five frigates along with various support craft.

On the bridge of the _Dauntless_ Admiral Sparatus frowned as he looked at the wreckage of what was a small monitoring station and muttered to himself, "That was too easy, where's the stations with shields and firepower to take on a patrol fleet, the ships that never stop firing their main guns, or those drones that disabled a frigate?" His frown worsened, "Coms, what's the status on the fleet?"

"Last ship just cleared the relay. All ships awaiting your orders," was the instant reply.

Sparatus nodded, "Good, instruct all ships to jump to rally point Gamma. From there scouting elements are to begin scouting for the enemy world starting with the closest star to the relief force's trajectory."

With that the Turian fleet jumped to a point one parsec away from the relay unaware of the observation probe attached to the relay or the multitude of accompanying probes in the surrounding area all searching their path for where the distinct energy signature of a mass effect drive ended.

* * *

Human Space Warcraft

Average tendencies across ships:

Human design tends to play off of the original Orion-class Battleship's design with a conical look with length increasing significantly more than width. Normally there are three full length mass drivers in a triangular pattern around the nosecone, sensors located in the nosecone, and an insulation layer that separates the areas the crew normally inhabits from the power generators and drive core to protect from overheating and static discharge. They also have a tendency to have a relatively small crew to their size and rely on onboard AIs to help automate ship function

Ship categories:

Standard categories:

Corvettes: Small ships normally lacking more than one length gun (our parallel to the spinal mounts of other races), these ships performs their duty by acting as a flack ship with numerous point defense systems and heat sinks to allow for continuous battery fire.

Length: 100 meters (average 50)

Armament: point defense lasers and railguns. No more than one (1) length gun, oftentimes with none depending on class

Engine class: Cheetah

Roles: perimeter scouts, anti-fighter/point defense, pursuit ship, fast transport, blockade runners (those that are smaller than average)

Crew: two to three (2-3)

* * *

Frigate: Standard light combat ship of the Human Collective. Is used as a flanking ship and a screen for the heavier classes, is also the standard raiding class due to its balance between speed, endurance, and economic efficiency

Length: approximately 300 meters

Armament: three (3) length guns in standard circle pattern. Decent point defense armament though cannot maintain standard length gun firing patterns while operating defenses to a significant degree

Engine class: Peregrine

Roles: flanker, screen for heavier classes, targeting down of weakened vessels, privateering/raiding, patrolling all human space, miscellaneous long endurance missions

Crew: ten (10)

* * *

Cruiser: As the modern equivalent to the old ship of the line, cruiser class vessels can hold their own against practically any ship class out there and in groups can pose a serious threat against even a dreadnaught class warship.

Length: 500 to 700 meters depending on class

Armament: standard length gun configuration. Low point defense for size (space is allocated to other systems)

Engine class: Persistence

Role: garrison of planets, heavy combat ship in engagements not calling for heavier warships, heavy combat ship

Crew: fifteen to eighteen (15-18) depending on class

* * *

Battleship: As the largest class save for the dreadnaught and the unnamed ship in construction at Sol Station One, battleships have fulfilled the heavy combat role in one shape or form since the first Orion Mk. II was constructed in the Earth's first spacedock. These warships are only deployed to choke point relays, vital incidents of note, or are rotated through the fast response fleets.

Length: 1 kilometer

Armament: standard ship weapons along with no less than twenty (20) megaton and one (1) gigaton yield nuclear warhead.

Engine class: Persistence

Role: Heavy warship/fleet leader, orbital bombardment platform

Crew: twenty-five (25)

* * *

Dreadnaught: The heaviest warships currently in service, dreadnaughts are one of the prides of human engineering alongside the xenoforming of Mars and the Dyson Swarm around Sol. Recently there has been a class wide refit due to design innovations produced from collaborating human and Quarin engineers which has all dreadnaughts in dry-dock save for two that have recently finished their shakedown runs.

Length: 1.5 kilometers (formerly 1.2)

Armament: Standard along with no less than forty (40) megaton, two (2) gigaton, and no more than one (1) cobalt nuclear warheads

Role: heavy warship, orbital bombardment platform (rumored to be a vital component of a clean slate operation)

Crew: forty (40)

* * *

Unknown ship under construction at Sol Station One: Not much is known about the behemoth save that once complete it will be the largest known warship and that its design is a significant departure from the human norm fueling rumors that it is a hybrid ship with a specific, though unnamed, purpose in mind.

Length: classified though larger than a dreadnaught

Armament: classified

Engine class: classified

Role: classified

Crew: classified

* * *

Specialist ships: It should be noted that due to the import of these ships to navel doctrine information may be classified

Carriers (light, medium, heavy): this group of ships has the double role of a drone carrier for space combat and transporting the war automatons for invasion. While no numbers on crew or capacity are available it is known that military commanders doubt the ability of most worlds to resist a group of medium carriers given the information provided by the Quarians. Leaked documents also state that heavy carriers will only be deployed in cases of total war and should they fail to take a world then a Clean Slate operation is likely.

Length: light: 200 meters; medium: 400 meters; heavy: 600 meters

Armament: combat drones and point defense weapons

Engine class: unknown

Role: carrier

Crew: unknown

* * *

Destroyer: These ships are missile boats with the explicit goal of destroying important enemy ships, though not much else is known

Length: 150 meters

Armament: various missile weaponry that is not known at this time

Engine class: Cheetah

Role: missile boat

Crew: seven (7)

* * *

Survey: A common ship type in the frontier this class has both peacetime and wartime roles. During peace it acts as a science vessel and uses its powerful sensors to collect any data available. These sensors have recently allowed for unprecedented breakthroughs in the Gateway Project. During wartime these ships act as either a command and control platform or a just a sensor ship. In either case it relays advanced sensor data to the rest of the fleet, however this does come at the cost of significantly reduced firepower

Length: 700 meters

Armament: classified (believed to be frigate level main guns)

Engine class: Persistence

Role: Sensor ship

Crew: thirty (30)- due to technical stations that need organic capabilities

* * *

A/N:Okay, shorter chapter on the actual plot thingies, but i figured that it would be better to get the human ship equivalents out of the way so it would make sense that their cruisers wouldn't blink at slugging it out with a Turian dreadnaught (though it should be noted that a constant barrage significantly increases heat generation cause, you know there's constant energy usage) and yes i know they're massive (at least compared to numbers i've seen before on the size of ships) but my logic is that they've had twenty years of unified slightly paranoid expansion (before first contact, not including the five years of access to Quarian engineers) vs. canon's nine years of disjointed expansion (which brings the time of unified government to four more years than canon if after first contact is included) and in canon three dreadnaughts are constructed by humanity in three years, it's just that here they've been funneling what would be considered an ungodly amount of resources into researching construction techniques if one knew the scale that they'd be facing (it should be considered that there was nothing to scale to before first contact so we'd naturally attempt to build bigger better ships in an attempt to catch up to the expected titans out there (we do seem to have a species wide pessimism on our chances so it'd be safe to assume we'd think we were behind) and then once contact is made it's with a race that operates what should honestly be considered a wonder of the modern galaxy with their liveships, that are massive again making humanity go on another design drive but also gives them access to what has to be the best organic engineers in the galaxy

should be noted that i haven't been able to find any hard numbers on ship size (really is annoying) though some things I've run across indicated that the Destiny Ascension was at most around a kilometer long so from there i went and decided on smaller ship sizes, though there are obvious problems with that

actually, if anyone could provide me with actual ship sizes I'd be appreciative!

(also separated codex files by line for readability)


	4. The Fleets Exchange Greetings

It took the Turians another week to determine their enemy's base, during which time they succeeded in constructing the basic framework of the supply space station, though what the scout returned was not what they expected. While they had expected either an early colony or homeworld of a species relatively new to spaceflight, they instead saw thirty-six ships cruiser size or larger with two that looked like the old Quarian shape.

"Spirits," breathed Sparatus when he saw the report, "Coms, contact command and patch this through. We'll need at least two more dreadnaughts for everything to be even."

The delay ended up costing the Turians another week to mobilize the other ships and their support craft, and then another week passed as the other Councilors discovered something was up and analyzed the situation before allowing the Turians to proceed with their plans.

All through this time the human probes continued their search for the rally point.

 _\n_

"Okay, who wants to play cards or something? There's enough nervous energy going on that I'm gonna be driven to molt what feathers I have, and I really don't want to know what that feels like!" Udina asked giving voice to what many people on the ship were thinking, "Hell, I'd even be willing to play that Mao game of yours."

Shepard chuckled, "I know you actually like that game, but since you insist on hating it I guess you could watch the sensors while the rest of us played a few rounds."

Shepard barely managed to pull out his card deck when alarms sounded and Margaret said, "Multiple contacts just detected on a ballistic course from the sun… command's been alerted."

"Sir, we're receiving positioning orders and command is instructing us to tackle one of the dreadnaughts for as long as we can," Udina relayed from his terminal.

"Understood, helm, make it so," with that Shepard leaned back and muttered to himself, "Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war. But once they are unleashed how will we control them?"

"Great, now I'm not sure if I should get onto you for copying a character over a century old, needlessly quoting Shakespeare, or being depressing," Margaret said on their private channel.

"I second that," muttered Udina.

With that the bridge lapsed into silence as the fleet moved to face the enemy and mark targets.

 _\n_

"Sir, the enemy fleet has moved to face us and are signalling for us to stand down."

Sparatus frowned, "Inform them that due to their unprovoked hostile actions against our personnel attempting to inform them of Council law we are here to bring the aggressors to justice. If they surrender them, we will be willing to cease hostilities and open diplomatic negotiations."

"Message sent," after a few minutes the com operator frowned at his screen, "Sir they're telling us to go back to our council and, that's not even possible."

Sparatus growled in annoyance, "Instruct the fleet to jump to the planets pole, they shall learn that it is not prosperous to attack someone for upholding the law."

With that order all ships jumped to geosynchronous orbit of the planet and, from the local perspective, appeared in two places at once.

 _\n_

"Enemy fleet just appeared over the southern pole. Sun interfered with our sensors so we couldn't detect the jump," reported Gadsden, one of the sensor operators.

Shepard sprang into action, "Coms, relay this to the fleet. Helm, bring us about. Weapons, gun status?"

"Operational and locked on target."

Shepard nodded, "Good. Sensors finish converting the scanners yesterday." Shepard received the affirmative and muttered, "Margaret, make sure command knows about solar radiation masking the signatures."

"Command's ordering all ships to move to the outer perimeter and engage the enemy," Udina grimaced, "and a private message to us saying that we're to keep the dreadnaught tackled until we have to engage the Samson procedure."

Shepard frowned, "Understood, I want everything ready for that eventuality."

"Ready to tackle on your command," said Gadsden.

Shepard had a feral grin, "As soon as we get in range fire. Keep that ship tackled, full spectrum and see if you can't overload their sensors. Margaret, disable the safeties on the reactors and funnel the energy into the sensors, keep them from going critical though."

Suddenly the ship shuddered as it joined the fleet in firing and battle was joined.

 _\n  
_

Sparatus frowned at his console, two of the enemy dreadnaughts were not firing at either the rate or strength of the other three, yet at least one seemed to have a way to disable one of his ships, "Target down the carriers, we can't afford their payload to get here. After that focus down that front dreadnaught. And I want a team to find out whatever they did to our dreadnaught."

He did not bother to see that his orders were obeyed before turning his attention back to the battle displays. The battle appeared to be one between Turian discipline and experience and this species' unorthodox designs. Their main guns were inefficient, only able to fire once every eight seconds, so they added more to all but two of their ships, and of those two one was staying back like a normal dreadnaught while the other was practically leading their cruisers while doing something to disable a dreadnaught. Add in the fact that they were making heavy use of drones (not manned fighters but unmanned drones!) and how some of their ships seemed to just deflect the shots coming at them, and this situation was shaping up to possibly be a watershed moment for the Council.

Sparatus shook his head, there was time for those thoughts later right now he had a battle to win. He smiled it looked like Turian discipline would win the day, that dreadnaught was further breaking ranks and charging. There! The latest shot had broken through its barriers and it was venting atmosphere. Escape pods were launched so a reactor breach was imminent, the shot must have done more damage than expected. Then all of a sudden it vanished and sensors were indicating a massive explosion on their port side.

He immediately jumped into action, "Someone tell me what the hell just happened!"

 _\n  
_

 **A few minutes prior.** _ **HCS Phoenix**_

The ship shook as another shield generator failed under the onslaught.

"Command's ordering all ships to fall back over the cannons," Udina reported while studiously ignoring the flickering lights.

Shepard shook his head, "Too late for us. When the shields fail I want everyone to the escape pods. Margaret, get ready to transfer to your mobile unit. Udina, inform command that this tactic needs either better shielding or larger guns to survive because they've been pounding us since the fight started and we aren't rated for this abuse."

Another impact shook the ship and Gadsden hit her console, "They just took out our main sensor array and their ship is already broadcasting."

Shepard frowned, "That's it then, all personal to their assigned pods. Margaret, I want those things landing behind the perimeter."

With that the bridge was abandoned save for Shepard, Udina, and Gadsden, who was pointedly ignoring Shepard's stare.

"Sir, with all due respect, we both know AI are shit at finding patterns in sensor data to the level needed for our jump," was her answer to the unspoken command, "There, coordinates are locked in for the drive.

Shepard just grunted from where he had taken over the helm, extensive cross-training was the norm not the exception, and activated the FTL drive to the programmed coordinates. The three people left on the bridge then ran to the last life pod to escape what would follow.

As the pod fled the ship a screen showed just what was happening. Mass effect based drive cores for some reason were incapable of allowing collisions at superluminal speeds, however they could be used to place a ship within meters of another object. This technicality led to the creation of the Samson Procedure for dying ships because, while not as devastating as if one was superluminal, the tons of metal required for a seven hundred meter ship would overwhelm even the best kinetic barriers. This mixed with the overloading of all reactors would utterly destroy the ship and disable the target at minimum with the final attack.

The Turians discovered this lesson when one of their dreadnaughts suddenly went up in a blinding flash of light that left only warped metal where before were two of the ships that dwarfed all others present.

The unintended side effects of this were twofold. First, the Turians were stunned into inactivity which allowed the Human forces to pull back behind their perimeter. Second, while there is no air in space to cause a shockwave, the movement of the ship during impact threw the life pod off course and they landed in farmland around one hundred miles from the defensive trench lines.

The hapless farmer then had the unfortunate job of pulling their unconscious forms from the large furrow they dug in his field.

Meanwhile the Human fleet used the distraction caused by the fusion reactor loosing containment and vaporizing two ships to pull back from the stunned Turian fleet.

 _\n_

When Sparatus, and most of the fleet, recovered from the sudden destruction of one of their dreadnaughts and the cause was determined he began snapping instructions, "All ships are to make disabling engines a priority and deploy fighters to prevent them from doing another short range jump. Once that's done reform ranks and pursue the enemy.

The fleet did as instructed and began to steadily advance.

Suddenly one of the sensor operators called out, "I'm picking up a massive energy surge on the continent. Anti-orbital canon just fired."

Before anyone could react the _Dauntless'_ shields flared briefly before collapsing and the slug tore a hole in the ship.

"Sir, the _Dauntless_ is reporting severe damage and their spinal mount is shot. Captain says the round barely missed the drive core," reported a com operator.

Sparatus growled, _this enemy kept pulling out one trick after another_ , "Pull the fleet back towards the pole and prepare ground forces to deploy. And someone find out why we didn't detect that canon until it was punching a hole in our ships."

 _\n_

Meanwhile on the ground General Williams grinned as he watched the tactical display, "Welcome to hell you metal heads, in this lesson you'll be discovering what we learned from a history of constant warfare." He then turned his attention to his staff, "Get messages out and make sure the artillery has enough shells, take the needed estimate and make sure we have double that ready to be moved at any point in time. And somebody get out there to recover those life pods, I don't want any of our people experiencing the enemy's hospitality."

"Sir, message just came in from central: they've decided on Warplan Blitz, you have full local command," said one of the orderlies.

Williams grin somehow turned more feral, "Excellent, relay my complements to the team that designed the krakens they just made our strategy viable." While his staff scurried to fill his orders he looked out the window at the assembled artillery chuckled softly to himself, "I'm reminded of an old quote, 'Cannon, noun. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.' It seems appropriate, now let's get to rectifying these invaders."

 _\n_

At the very same instant across the galaxy Councilor Maxilinus frowned at the latest report from the front as he entered his office only to freeze when someone coughed. He jerked his head up to see Councilors Tevos and Jaexo standing in front of his desk.

Tevos' eyes narrowed as she interrupted his attempt to speak, "Would you care to explain why you've suddenly moved a battle group of five dreadnaughts into what is supposed to be a secure region of space?"

Maxilinus groaned, it was looking like a long day.

* * *

Planetary defense tactics: While intelligence indicates that most other races are willing to disperse throughout the countryside and wait for reinforcement in the case of losing orbital control, human commanders deemed this an unacceptable option. This resulted in the current strategy of heavy defensive lines centered around population centers and anti-orbital cannons with support given for guerrilla operations behind enemy lines. Those who have seen the details have been noted commenting that it looked like an attempt at giving the enemy a recreation of WWI mixed with experience from guerrilla campaigns from the last two centuries, only with modern weaponry up to tactical nuclear weapons if the situation is deemed critical.

Kraken anti-orbital cannon: A modern marvel of terrestrial engineering and a monument to the lengths humanity will go to defend its territory, the kraken is a two mile long railgun imbedded in the planets crust that fires a one ton slug (either ferrotungsten or depleted uranium depending on resource availability) at speeds capable of breaking a (human) dreadnaughts shields after two hits at full power (barring deflection via shaped shielding). This is made possible by the introduction of mass effect fields along the barrel length to reduce the projectile's mass significantly. This has a side effect of causing a significant shockwave around the firing site, therefore shielding is required to prevent damage to the surrounding area. The weapons power is provided by capacitor banks charged by two dedicated fusion generators (one per mile segment), and is capable of charging and firing once every five minutes. However the stresses involved at firing at this rate quickly damage components requiring replacements, hence the fire rate is limited to once per eight minutes (due to continued risk of damage the average rate is once every ten minutes), therefore the cannons are normally deployed in an array so as to also make up for their limited firing arcs (only capable of firing within an arc from sixty to one hundred twenty degrees).

GP-46 rifle: The result of significant effort to combine mass effect technology with the best advantages of standard infantry rifles, the GP-46, standing for general purpose model forty-six, combines the precision of weapons such as the M14 with the famed durability of the Kalashnikov. As could be expected the early versions were dismal failures riddled with design flaws that either jammed easily or failed to maintain precision, had heat issues, and were still plagued with the problem of having ammo. During the past two decades these issues have been hammered out resulting in a weapon that, while it falls short of the Kalashnikov's indestructability, is capable of going through conditions that would have left a purely mass effect based rifle inoperable while maintaining acceptable precision, though there is a notable difference between a pristine rifle and one in those conditions.  
-Ammunition: 7.62 NATO, velocity boosted using magnetic coils and mass effect fields, has secondary mass effect based barrel below and slightly to the right of the main barrel  
-Ammo capacity: thirty (30) round magazine, if out of ammo has a built in block that functions the same as those found in purely mass effect based rifles  
-Heat management: has three heatsinks that rotate out and air-cool, empty magazines can also function as an emergency heatsink when mass accelerator barrel is in use.

Samson Maneuver: Named after the mythical Samson who pulled the temple down with him, the Samson Maneuver is the final act of defiance of a human ship and only used when there is either no hope of survival or a pitched battle is underway. The ship will jettison life pods before doing a in system jump to lightspeed to just off the intended target, once the jump finishes it will proceed to ram the targeted ship while disabling the containment fields around the fusion reactors resulting in both vessels destruction.

* * *

A/N: had a bit of a writing delay here, it's surprisingly difficult to either get hold of people for a physics discussion when they're at a beach party, though not as hard as writing space battles, they're surprisingly dull despite how frantic they can be given that it's basically giant guns strapped to tin cans silently firing at each other. or maybe i should just stick to the small scale engagements, big stuff gets... impersonal  
and in regards to the " _\n"_ s, i needed something to keep things from getting too jumbled and the full lines are used for major things so i just used that since it's the newline command in java (hence the closest thing to a blank space filler i could find) and shorter than doing -break-

oh and thought processes on two things:

one: Turian response size is the level it is since they're thinking the surveyors and cruisers are dreadnaughts

two: Kraken weapon strength: most dreadnaughts shields are probably to scale of known spinal guns (ie. the Destiny Ascension) and wouldn't waste the energy trying to stop something that didn't exist such as a two mile long railgun. It should also be noted that due to the speeds involved the slug would likely be molten as it impacted in a similar fashion to a thranix cannon (actually just realized this...), however as noted these things would devastate the surrounding area without shielding (as is they tend to be placed on the outskirts of urban areas instead of in the middle so nothing gets destroyed)

* * *

edit: an error slipped by and my inner nerd fell asleep and allowed a mistake that has been fixed


	5. Plots are laid

Tevos rubbed her eyes in an attempt to stave off her impending headache, "Let me see if I've got this straight. In their infinite wisdom your Primarchs decided that instead of having you pass the news of first contact to us, they decided to make a show of force because they were upset that you were beaten in a skirmish. And when that didn't work you launched an invasion of their world. Am I missing something here?"

"I was only informed about this recently, they decided that if the newcomers were hostile it'd be better to have the initiative," Maxilinus said for what must have been the fifth time.

Tevos groaned, "Yes, because sending a war fleet into one of their systems won't send the wrong message. Okay, let's just focus on damage control from here on out. Jaexo, I assume you've already compiled of profile of the species."

Jaexo nodded and typed into his omni-tool, "Watch the image. Standard ship design functional, no frivolities, efficient surface area to interior. Sensor number on station indicative of research post. Likely species emphasizes practicality, possibly focuses science. Space tactics show theoretical knowledge, little experience, attempts to make up for deficiencies with numbers. Fields disproportionate amount of mechs, no fighters either, possibly low population growth. Drones and mechs react too fast and too unpredictably, possible AI usage. Planet deployment has focus on defense, directly counters orbital superiority via ground to space weapony. Resources needed for gun, significant. Resource demands indicate defensive mindset, likely significant amount of industrial base devoted to military. Indicative of warlike history or hostile prior contact, if latter likely planetside given inexperience in space. Possibly have authoritarian regime, uses military to oppress population, if so possibly will attempt to invade."

Tevos sighed, Jaexo was excellent at analysis but could get lost in the data, and cleared her throat "I'm sure you could write this up in a report for us, but right now we need to know their likely reactions to the war and diplomacy."

Jaexo shook his head, "Impossible to tell, too many variables. If totalitarian regime, unlikely to surrender unless it has something to gain and low risk of revolt. If oppressive, leadership unlikely to surrender as it could trigger revolts. Best course is to appear as liberators. If support is ingrained in populace plans for occupying Hegemony worlds should be used as baseline. If not totalitarian and we're correct in practicality, choices determined by battle outcome. We win, we negotiate from position of strength, they'll likely give in to demands as long as we're not too unreasonable, will be able to make them associate species if we wish. If stalemate, will likely attempt to get as much as they can in negotiations, low possibility they'll decide not to join but most likely will. If they win, four possibilities. They negotiate from position of strength, depending on nature of battle they may or may not join, likely join. They decide to carry on the war and are unable to compete with our industrial base, we force stalemate and eventually win, both sides considerably weakened, likely raiders begin harassing both our territory. Think immediately post Rachni Wars or Rebellions. They carry on war and can compete with our industry, stalemate, same weakening as before, higher risk to remain independent. They carry on war and outclass our industry, we hope for stalemate and peace talks, forced to work on Genophage cure or uplift Yahg, precluding that, three options. They occupy our worlds and begin assimilation efforts. Cripple us to halt our being a threat, something along the lines of the Genophage. Or they go for genocide. Their apparent paranoia or history indicate unlikeliness for them to initiate peace talks unless we win."

Tevos frowned, "Surely you don't think it could get that bad."

Jaexo shrugged, "Is impossible to say. They might've been unlucky and lack many habitable worlds so they pour resources to protect the precious few. It might be a core colony near their homeworld and this is their main fleet. It's also possible they've spread throughout an unknown portion of the relay network and can rival us in controlled space." He paused for breath, "There is just not enough data. All we have is speculation, nothing more."

Tevos' frown deepened, the headache had arrived full strength, "Okay, since we can't do anything without losing face, and have no clue on the bigger picture, why don't we let things play out and choose when to intervene?" When the other two councilors nodded she glared at Maxilinus, "In the meantime why don't you explain to your Primarchs why it's important to tell us these things?"

Maxilinus nodded and sighed, he hated when he was right… and things just kept getting better. He was out of alcohol.

 **\n**

Shepard groaned as he slowly regained consciousness and opened his eyes to a room that was not a normal medical bay and mercifully lacked the bright lights.

"Good you're waking up, was starting to think that I screwed up the injections," said an unfamiliar voice.

Shepard turned his head to view the speaker, a man who seemed so nondescript as to set off all of Shepard's alarms. He was maybe about five foot eight inches with brown hair and eyes. His face was devoid of any distinguishing characteristics yet gave off the feeling that its bearer had an easier life before choosing hard work.

When he saw that Shepard was fine the man started pulled up his tricorder and started tapping, "Okay, you people are either the luckiest or the unluckiest bastards in existence. Something must've gone wrong 'cause you landed here and not behind our perimeter, planetfall overloaded the inertial dampeners more than expected and you all either passed out from the g-forces or got a concussion, on the bright side you didn't get reduced to paste and landed practically on my doorstep. You've all been on nectar for the last four days to repair the internal damage and prevent radiation sickness, your pod lost some of its shielding and you all received a noticeable dose when your ship went nova, and my readings are showing that you should be fine."

Once he had processed this Shepard spoke, "Where are we? Who are you? And where are the rest of my people?"

The man smiled and continued tapping, "Safe room hidden under the house. Turians already did a sweep and couldn't find anything so we're safe. I'm Gabriel Harper, call me Gabe, chameleon section. The others are already awake, you had the worse injuries, and are eating in the next room. Margaret's been alternating between yelling at you, brooding, and being useful while you've been out."

Shepard frowned, "Take me to them."

Gabe smiled and helped him up, when Shepard swayed he frowned and moved to support him, "Hmm, might be a day or two until you're ready for anything. Come on, let's go see your friends."

Together they moved into the next room, this one painted a similar metallic greyish blue as the last one. It was mostly bare save for shelves, cabinets, a sink, and stove at one end serving as a makeshift kitchen. A vidcom and several chairs at the other end in what appeared to be an entertainment or briefing area. And a plain table where his fellow crewmembers were sitting around on functional wood chairs.

Udina smiled when he saw Shepard, "And he lives. Now maybe you can explain why I always end up waiting on you when things like this happen?"

Shepard snorted as he made his way over to the table, "Funny, I seem to recall waiting an extra two weeks after the bio-attacks for you to be well enough to leave your room," he groaned as he was lowered into a free seat.

Udina smirked, "Sounds like you're looking forward to the customary after injury jog later today."

Shepard's groan increased in volume, "How 'bout we just say you won it? Ugh, don't think I was this sore after getting my genes sorted out."

"No, pretty sure that was worse." Udina tilted his head slightly, "You know, maybe this'll teach you to wait until **after** we get of the ship to ram it."

This brought Gadsden's attention back to the present, "No, we've only been in the same room for a few minutes and I am not putting up with this until the battle is finished."

The room's atmosphere turned grim at the reminder of their circumstances.

Shepard sighed and leaned back, "Just what's going on out there? Things feel… off. Wrong somehow."

Gabe nodded, "Was just about to get there, let's see. Okay, front line's going like planned. They've started trying to dig their own lines just to survive the artillery and are trading lives for automatons. Out here things are different. We think that they're stretching their supply lines to capacity between trying to supply their fleet with ammo, food for all of them, and medical supplies, and then some of our people sabotaged the cities food stores when they tried rounding those of us in the countryside up so they'd either have to feed all of us or let us be. That lead to a different problem though; hastatim units have been in the population centers outside the Circle and they've been ruthless in suppressing any resistance."

Gadsden was the first to connect the wrong feeling with that statement, "How many?"

Gabe shrugged, "We can't be sure but estimates put it in the thousands for the first day and double digits ever since save for one spike into the hundreds, however it has only been a few days since they landed so we can't be sure. Note that those estimates are for each individual city. As it is the cities are one push away from a revolt and everyone can tell, that's caused everyone to be tense, especially their soldiers since they haven't been able to lock down the city since they're so unfamiliar with our infrastructure, and this leads to them being more on edge and harsher than their records show which in turn pushes things closer." He took a breath to gather himself before continuing, "Now that leads us to the real import of these strong rooms. Are any of you familiar with the Chameleon Project?"

"You mean the secret project to place specially trained personnel in the outer colonies in case of hostile contact with an alien power that's been denied no less than eleven times in the last five years and that I've never had progress reports for our allies pass my desk ever? Nope, never heard of it," Udina said in a vain attempt to cut through the melancholy.

Gabe nodded, "Excellent, then I'll skip straight to what needs to happen. Those of us outside the cities have been given orders to relieve pressure by drawing their attention away from the cities. It would consist of hit and run attacks on vulnerable targets and is volunteer only. I understand you're all Astro, but are you willing to help?"

The three people shared glances before Shepard spoke, "What do we need to do?"

Gabe smiled and passed a few sheets of paper out, "Good, if you'll read these they show just what this entails. Mainly things like putting you formally under the command of the OSS until either relieved or the invasion is over." Once they had read the papers he continued, "They set up a base a few miles from here and due to needing the drones for less secure areas are relying on foot patrols to ensure their security. Several of these patrols go through a forest that they haven't been able to properly clear yet, we think due to the tendency of some of the plant's tendency to explode when on fire, and it should be possible to pull their attention to that area. But we need to get everyone armed first. Question, are any of you certified on a grav-suit?"

Gadsden raised her hand, "I am, B level."

Gabe raised an eyebrow, "Impressive, especially since you're ship based. I have one in the armory but it's only a C class, though I have the equipment to modify it. I assume you're familiar with the necessary modifications."

When she nodded his smile returned even stronger and they proceeded to divide the weapons, Shepard and Udina each received GP-46 rifles while Gabe chose an engineer rifle.

* * *

Intersystem Network Accessed

Loading Data:

Tricorder: Named after a device from a classic science fiction series, tricorders are humanities counterpart to other races' omni-tools. They can both serve the same functions, however unlike the omni-tools, they do not rely on a holographic display and may be a physical device, a network of implants between body parts with ocular implants providing the images and periphery equipment for specialist work such as scanner that would be unsuitable for implant, such is the military standard, a hard light display like the omni-tool, or any combination of the above. Recently work has succeeded in bridging the gap between the operating systems of both them and omni-tools.

 **\n**

Nectar: Nectar, named after the mythical drink of the gods, is the liquid counterpart to medigel and is designed for intravenous administrations to treat internal injuries. While medigel focuses on sealing external injuries and preventing bleeding with only a slight increase in healing speed, nectar focuses on drastically reducing the recovery time for internal injuries. It does so through containing large amounts of nutrients and the microorganisms designed to accelerate physical genetic modifications. As a result it also serves as a viable treatment method for acute radiation syndrome. A side effect of this is that future recovery times are reduced as long as material is available for the body to work with, though there is a slight increase in the patient's food requirements.

 **\n**

Chameleon Project: The Chameleon Project is a rumored long term operation to place specially trained operatives in the colonies to deal with threats. There is controversy over the idea, despite it being denied repeatedly, due to how it blurs the lines between military and civilian, questions over what operatives would do when not actively fighting, and ambiguity over just what they would be protecting against, just external threats or would they operate against internal unrest also? Despite the numerous denials, the rumors remain prevalent and some theorize that it is a natural result of the human government's unique methods of handling problems, in this case how to counter a galaxy where species do not necessarily differentiate civilians while avoiding a police state.

 **\n**

Grav-suit: Due to the adverse human reaction to Eezo (see Eezo poisoning in humans) rendering the possibility of human biotics impossible human and Quarian, who due to lifestyle have an extremely low number of biotics, teams have worked together to create a synthetic alternative to the formerly purely biological phenomenon. While it was decried by some as a waste of resources the additional results such as improved pressure suits for both races, with several decades of refinement bypassed for humanity, a better understanding of mass effect fields, and improving mechanical exoskeletons.

Appearance: The grav-suit's basic appearance is that of a standard mechanical pressure suit, though thicker, with the addition of a metal exoskeleton running from the neck down the limbs along the lines that natural Element Zero nodes would form

Rating: Grav-suits are currently rated on an alphabetical scale according to capability with the most advanced as A and the remainder shifted as development occurs. Currently there are three ranks: A, B, and C.

* * *

A/N: First off i wish to apologize for my absence, which was the result of a mixture of my attention being distracted by plot bunnies, school work, and a reading queue that is still too long, my muse deciding it wanted to taunt me, and losing all of the work I had done past this point and a belief that this was included in the loss (for those curious it was because up until recently my work has been split between using a mac and a PC and the mac lost the data before it could be transferred into triple redundancy system, that I ironically used to prevent that very thing from happening).

On the bright side my schedule has cleared up (barring the aforementioned reading queue), inspiration has returned to at least an extent that words can put put out, I discovered that this part had actually been moved beforehand which has helped vanish the irritation and feeling of just spinning my wheels from the loss, and I've gotten more of the total plotline mapped out.

Back to my original point, I am sorry for leaving this for so long. Work has resumed alongside the plot bunnies I mentioned earlier (some of which may be posted in the relatively near future should I deem them as holding promise). And I swear that I have no intention of abandoning any story I put up, they may go on a hiatus (such as this one went on an unannounced one), in which case I will endeavor to give some announcement in the future, but they will eventually be finished.

Also I will be going over the preceding chapters to fix errors I noticed while reading over to bring myself back up to speed, and standardize the formatting so if you look at them and something seems different know that nothing has changed except layout and error correction

PS: Currently I am having to read over everything myself and would appreciate it if someone would be willing to act as a beta/idea board


	6. Plots are in motion

Decanus Vakarian having a bad day. First there was the fact that he found out the patrol that was sent out yesterday was still missing and presumed dead, the third one in two weeks and the first one that had men from his centuria. What really annoyed him was that this was supposed to be a quiet sector for the remnants of his legion to recover from the front lines, specifically the simultaneous enemy attack with underminers and poison gas that decimated them. Finally there was the fact that he had to escort a soldier dispatched from one of the hastatim units through this Spirits-forsaken forest.

Logically he understood the need for hastatim, without them any war the Turians fought would not end until one side was wiped out to the last supporter, but that did not mean he wouldn't prefer to deal with a member of a cabal. And they made his plates itch.

On the bright side they were nearing where contact was lost with the patrol so he'd be able to discover what happened to his comrades. A moment later he regretted that thought as they rounded the bend to find the scene of a bloodbath.

The patrol was obviously dead. A couple had entire portions of their bodies ripped into a bloody mixture of flesh and metal by what was most likely biotics. Three more were missing portions of their heads and were lying in their patrol positions, they likely died in the opening salvo. Another one looked like he had gotten caught by a grenade, going by the mangling and the scorch marks at least. The remaining four were all riddled with the large entry holes that were becoming iconic for their enemy's weaponry.

The hastatim, Vakarian never bothered with learning his name, took one look at the situation and started barking out orders, "Get a perimeter set up and keep an eye out, they could still be around or left traps like the last patrol. Decanus, get in contact with command and tell them we've found the bodies and to send men to secure the area. And nobody touch anything, we don't know what they've rigged or could be important later!"

As Vakarian started following the orders he rolled his eyes, none of them were going to take risks after that mine went off when they tried to move a corpse last time and took a quarter of the retrieval team with it. He had just made contact with command when he saw something fly out of nowhere and land in the middle of the clearing and called out, "Grenade!" while diving for cover.

Before any of his comrades could react the grenade went off with a blinding flash and there were simultaneous gunshots along with the distinctive sound of biotics followed by the screams of the unlucky person to be hit. Almost instantly the clearing was filled with the mechanical sound of the enemy's weapons and the tapping whoosh of his allies' return fire. However that quickly died off and by the time his vision cleared enough for him to get his bearings a figure charged him and bashed him in the face with the butt of their rifle, disorienting him again. This was quickly followed by pain in his hand and knee before he passed out.

Shepard frowned as Gabe pulled his knife out of the Turian's hand, "Were both really necessary?"

Gabe shrugged, "Had to ensure he couldn't still be useful. If it was just the knee he could still do deskwork, and we don't know how long it'd take them to heal just the hand."

"So why not just cut the knot and lob off the hand?" Shepard asked as he helped in stripping the bodies of supplies.

Gabe shook his head, "Don't want to risk him bleeding out, corpses won't drain their supplies like the wounded," he then whistled as he secured the Turian's rifle, "Be glad he was disoriented; think this is a heavier version of their standard rifle. Would've punched through are armor like it wasn't even there."

"Well let's be thankful for small mercies. I'd rather not get Eezo in my system and die, thank you very much," Gadsden said while searching a body before freezing, "Guys, think you'll want to have a look at this. If I'm not wrong this one's got that hastatim symbol you showed us."

"Huh? Let me see," Gabe walked over and looked where she indicated, "Well I'll be damned it is one. Hey Udina, picking up any pings nearby?"

Udina checked his equipment, studiously avoiding looking at the scene all the while, "Nope, if you work quickly you should be done before they can scramble."

"Excellent, inform me if the situation changes. Think it's time to send a message." Gabe paused as he noticed something, "Oh, looks like this is your unlucky day. Bastard's still alive. You guys might want to look away."

 **\n**

Admiral Sparatus frowned as he walked into his ships med-bay. Currently it was filled to the brim with soldiers too injured to continue the fight that were waiting for transport to the fleets staging point on their way to the medical centers on Pavalen. The sight never failed to bother him and make him curse the Conventions preventing him from just bombing the fortifications to dust. As things were he made a point to come down every day when there was a lull in the fighting to check up on his men and remind himself that his actions have consequences.

After a few moments he spotted the doctor in charge and made his way over, "Doctor, how is everyone?"

The doctor finished typing on his omni-tool and looked up, "Admiral, good I was just about to send for you. The ambush survivor woke up earlier and just cleared the tests. I'll take you to him now."

Sparatus gestured for the doctor to lead, "What is his status?"

"Overall good despite being unconscious for three days. He was shocked to be alive and upset to learn about the deaths of his men, more so than his injuries. I recommend you do not share the fate of the hastatim unit attached to his squad with him. Here we are sir," with that the doctor returned to his duties.

When the soldier, _Vakarian_ Sparatus remembered from the file, noticed him he nodded his head, "My apologies for not saluting sir, but my hand…" he indicated the stabilizers locking his hand and arm.

Sparatus waved him off, "It's understandable, and for what it's worth I'm sorry about what happened to your squad. Now I'm going to need you to go over what exactly it was that happened."

It took time, but Vakarian eventually managed to haltingly relay the events of the patrol.

As far Sparatus one part of the report stood out, "That sound, you said it sounded like biotics?"

"Y-yes sir," Vakarian replied as he tried to get his thoughts away from the horrible screaming.

Sparatus frowned, "Thank you. This is our first confirmation of enemy forces using biotics. Now I'll leave you to your rest," with that he stood to leave.

Before he could go Vakarian asked, "Sir, if I may. The doctors wouldn't give me an estimate for how long until I'm fit for duty again. Could you ask them on your way out?"

Sparatus frowned about how to respond, "I'm not the best to answer that, but you'll find out eventually. I read the reports and between the damage done to you from the ambush and an infection that sprung up you will not be able to return. And unless things change back home there aren't any desk positions for you to be shifted to as is normal in these cases."

"But sir, I have a wife back home and the military is all I've ever known. How am I going to do my part bringing in money?" Vakarian had the look of a Turian whose entire world had just come crashing down around him.

Sparatus looked at him sadly, "There are things in place to help you, and the reports are optimistic about you regaining functionality, just not to the level required for active service. Personally I've read your file and, while it's not the same, think you should look into being an officer. It might suit you and there's always a need for them." With that Sparatus left him to his thoughts.

 **\n**

Back on the planet's surface the human team was happy to be near the ride back to their hideout.

"First thing I'm doing when I get back is taking a warm shower, had enough of these stupid forests for a lifetime," despite the words Udina's smile betrayed his happiness.

Gadsden snorted, "Amen to that. I can't wait to get this suit off. I swear it tingles."

"It's all in your head. You know as well as I do that the engineers are paranoid about stopping leakage," Shepard shook his head, "Anyway, what I'm looking forward to the most is a nice hot meal. At least in space the rations are halfway decent."

The other's made affirmative noises save Gabe, "You're also in a tin can surrounded by death. Personally I prefer to stay in atmosphere where I can at least influence my fate. Now keep an eye out. I wouldn't be surprised if they had sentries near the edges of the forest."

That sobered everyone up quickly and they made the rest of their journey in silence until they arrived at the small dugout beyond the tree line where their vehicle was hidden.

Gabe looked around, "Margaret, come help me get the jeep started. Shepard, Udina, you provide overwatch and come when we signal we're ready."

With that they took off across the field and disappeared into the hidden garage. A few minutes later they poked their heads back out and signaled they were ready. Shepard and Udina shared a look before they started jogging over to the others.

At about a third of the way Udina looked over, "Come on, I'm carrying the heavy communication equipment and still keeping up with you. Is that the best you've got?"

It was at that moment that a shot rang out and Shepard collapsed. Udina just stared at him for a moment before what happened registered and he charged the source of the round.

Meanwhile Gabe's blood ran cold as he felt the connection with Udina become swiftly muted, almost as if he were dead, yet saw him perfectly fine and charging, "Shit! Gadsden, suppressing fire on those trees, I'm grabbing Shepard."

He didn't wait for a response as he ran out and the sound of heavy fire came from behind him. He quickly reached Shepard and swiftly cursed the lack of cover as he began moving him back towards the bunker.

The moment he arrived he began checking for injuries by cutting off the back part of Shepard's armor and swore at the mass of blood and ceramic that was the small of his back. Swiftly he cleaned off what blood he could risk before covering the area in medigel in the hopes that it would keep it stable enough until they reached the better facilities at the safe house.

Once he had done all he could to stabilize Shepard he poked his head up to the sight of Gadsden trying to calm a shaking Udina who was covered in Turian blood, "He should live but we need to get to the safe house as soon as we can."

With that they all quickly got into the vehicle and went through the tunnels as quickly as possible. During which Gabe took great pleasure in activating the incendiary charges they had scattered throughout the forest to cover their exit.

 **\n**

General Williams rubbed his eyes as he looked at the person who had woken him up just after he fell asleep, "So what is it that had you get me out of bed?"

The man, Williams was too tired to bother with his name, shifted slightly, "The search fleet reports that they've found the enemy staging point."

That got the general's attention, "Issue orders to have everyone ready for an offensive by the end of the week. Now unless there's anything else I haven't slept in two days and am getting some rest." With that he returned to his bed and the glorious sleep that it held.

* * *

Intersystem Network

Office of Special Services: The Office of Special Services (OSS) is the intelligence arm of the Human-Quarian Alliance, and before that filled the same role for the Human Collective. Its authority covers both counterespionage and espionage operations regardless of location, though there are different rules in play depending on whether or not the subject is a citizen, and special operations such as the rumored Chameleon Project. Not much is publically known about their activities currently save for what can be determined from their charter and the policy that operations must be declassified once those involved are at no risk.

 **\n**

Shanxi Flora: Trees: The trees of Shanxi are relatively unique in that several common species react explosively to sustained high temperatures such as fire or to sudden structural degradation. The exact mechanics are currently not known but it is believed to result from high pressure sap rapidly expanding. The function is better understood as the explosion serves to spread seeds widely and can help clear the immediate area of competitors. While normally this does not result in much danger, bar being located in the surrounding area on an uncharacteristically hot day, should there be fire present they can cause what would normally be a minor fire into an inferno as flaming debris are launched through the air. A fact that served as a rude surprise to the original colonists.

* * *

A/N: Not much really to say here save that I've always considered biotics to be these horrifying eldritch powers which people are perfectly sane to be wary of in the "respect the docile but highly venomous snake" sense

Also since the information I've found only says the Turian military is structured similar to the Romans yet only the leadership and promotion system is elaborated on, all their army ranks and everything is based on my limited understanding of the Roman military


End file.
